State, space and security : the treatment of deviant groups in times of crisis

The project explores the spatial strategies employed by the state during the ongoing financial crisis in regards to the treatment of perceived as deviant groups in Cluj- Napoca, Budapest and Athens. In the current context, groups such as the Roma, the homeless and seropositive women face extreme discrimination and are pushed in the margins of the society. An interpretative approach is adopted in order to steer the thesis towards a critical assessment of the everyday practices of the state and its apparatuses, as well as towards an analysis of the discourses that legitimate these practices. In the process of securitizing and excluding deviant groups, certain spaces become the targets of preferential investments in built environment and infrastructure, while others become stigmatized and criminalized. The three cases outlined show three stages of this differentiation, in which deviant groups play the key role. The case of Cluj illustrates a strict dichotomy between the city and the periphery, where Roma people are exiled.In Budapest, the entire territory of the city can be seen as a patchwork of centres and marginal areas, where homeless people are banned in certain spaces, but tacitly allowed in others. Finally, in the case of the seropositive women, it is argued thatin Athens there are no spaces relegated to deviance,just as there are no spaces that are completely purified of it. Instead, deviance is ubiquitous, through the creation of an overarching discursive climate.